WASHINGTON (AP) — As the U.S. House of Representatives prepares to take a historic vote on the impeachment of President Donald Trump, the American public is following along, steadfast in its views.
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Many polls since House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the start of an impeachment inquiry on Sept. 24 show that Americans are closely divided over whether Trump should be removed from office. Heated public hearings on network television that reached millions of Americans alongside a White House on the defensive have done little to move public opinion on the issue.
And there’s little sign that the inquiry has had any impact on Trump himself, whose approval rating has not strayed from the range it’s been throughout his presidency.
The impeachment articles accuse Trump of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. The House has spent weeks investigating whether the president violated his oath of office by asking the government of Ukraine to investigate his political opponent.
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CONSISTENT (AND POLARIZED) VIEWS OF TRUMP
Approval of Trump’s overall performance has largely held steady, even as the impeachment proceedings have carried on. A new AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research poll has Trump’s approval rating standing at 40%, about where it’s been over the last several months and through most of his presidency.
Views of the president and, by extension, views of his impeachment reflect deep political polarization. Wide shares of Democrats both disapprove of the president and support impeachment, while wide shares of Republicans approve of Trump and want him to remain in office.
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WHERE THINGS STAND
New polls from The Washington Post/ABC News and CNN find support for impeachment and removal remains at about half of Americans.
Support for removing the president saw a one-time increase in the wake of Pelosi’s September announcement of an official inquiry. Earlier this year, polls showed a majority opposed to impeachment.
Both polls find less than half of Americans approving of how either congressional Democrats or Republicans — or Trump — have handled the inquiry.
Still, the Post/ABC poll finds that a slim majority of Americans, 55%, think the hearings in House committees have been fair to the president.
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LOOKING BACK
Today’s presidential impeachment inquiry is only the fourth in U.S. history, and polling demonstrates how public opinion fluctuated — or didn’t — as impeachment proceedings progressed.
Approval of President Bill Clinton actually ticked up immediately after the House vote to impeach him in December 1998. Though a short-lived bump, Clinton did emerge largely unscathed from the proceedings over his handling of allegations of his extramarital affair with Monica Lewinsky, a White House intern. Views of his impeachment were fairly negative throughout 1998 and 1999, with support for his removal reaching no more than about a third of Americans, including just before the House voted to approve two articles of impeachment. In the midst of the investigation, Democrats even picked up seats in the 1998 midterm election, though they went on to lose the 2000 presidential election.
By comparison, approval ratings for President Richard Nixon took a severe hit as the public learned more about his transgressions, according to Gallup polling. Over the same time, support for impeachment steadily grew. Even so, it wasn’t until late July 1974, after the House Judiciary Committee approved articles of impeachment to send on to the House for vote, that more than half supported Nixon’s removal from office.
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LOOKING AHEAD
The House vote on Wednesday is expected to fall along partisan lines, with nearly all Democrats planning to approve the charges against Trump, which would advance the case to the Senate for trial.
Just as he did during the House committee hearings, Trump has told officials not to appear, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell similarly rejected Democrats’ plea for witness testimony during the Senate trial.
Before McConnell’s announcement, the Post-ABC poll showed a wide majority of Americans, 71%, saying Trump should allow his top aides to testify in a Senate trial.
Nearly 6 in 10 also said they were confident that Trump would receive a fair trial in the Senate.
Fake news and fake polls is at it again. Trump will win by a landslide. The vast majority of religious Jews support Trump in the latest polls. The Blacks hate Bloomberg and Biden. The white American non Jews despise Bernie and Bloomberg. The Democrats have not chance in the 2020 elections. Bloomberg with all his money has no wife like every president did and is also short and not charismatic. Unlike Hillary who got chassidim votes but Bloomberg opposss metziza bapeh. Babies will have to be transported not only to other states for a bris like happened in New York but to other countries. If Bloomberg is president the babies will be flown to Uman for a bris. So all the chassidim who may want to vote democratic beware. There is not one normal candidate in all of the front runners on the democratic side. The problem is that liberal secular Jews are trying to bring down Trump the best president in history for Jews. Nadler supported giving Iran 150 billion dollars which allows them to build a missile system capable of nuking six million Israeli Jews. These liberal assimilated Jews are worse than nazis. Nazis took five years to murder six million. They support killing six million in nine minutes. These secular bums also are doing a great job in destroying American normal families. They are the loudest in brainwashing children to a gay lifestyle as well as trying to convince parents not to acknowledge their kids which sex they were born with. The ADL group Of assimilationist says well hates Trump and as part of their program they want gay marriage to be legal in every country. Why. Because their former leader Abe Foxnans son is a feigala and married another feigala. So too Schumer’s daughter married another woman and Schumer attended the wedding wearing a green yarmulka because the shidduch was with an Irish goyta. We need to outvote all of these haters of Judaism. They are far worse than the black Israelite gang of psychos. The hopeful news is that most reform assimilationist are going lost through intermarriage or lack of having kids. There is no more reform temple in Boro park. It has been demolished and is making space for real Jews to have housing. It a pleasure to drive by 46 st between 15 and 16 aves and see it demolished just as we saw pictures of hitlers Nazi germany in shambles after World War Two. We must vote in the ballot and have more babies. Both here and in secular Israel.
Soros is behind this jewish dominated coup, ezra friedlander sold out years ago but aguda loves him for $$$
Polls polls polls . That’s all we heard about in 2016.
The impeachment brings down Biden and lumps Trump! It’s a beauty . And wait till it goes to the senate. That will be fun. Remember we control the senate. After today show is over for you dems.
2020 is right around the corner . Once the senate clears Trump it’s election time.
Let him get impeached. In the senate it’s gonna be yontif. You watch